Lot Details

This is a rare and important print from the "Amnesia and Memory" Portfolio of 12 prints, that each demonstrate the stunning range of unique and poignant images by o of the most famous Chinese Contemporary artists working today, Zhang Xiaogang. This work is printed on 300g Somerset velvet paper, loose as issued, and in excellent condition. This is edition 84 of 88.

Zhang is best known for his sombre, yet dreamy and poignant paintings and prints of families and house-hold object. The apparent similarities in all the portraits and object express the homogeneity and collectively Zhang saw as hallmarks of this time in Chinese history. The artist often depicts images of hand-written letters, and in this rare instance, the actual writing of a letter. This is not random imagery but Zhang's childhood was defined by writing and drawing, and he considers this image to self-referential. His best prints are mostly black and white, with unexpected inclusion of false colors, such as the yellow fracture of color here.

The artist was born in a province capital in Southwestern China, and was eight years old at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution. During this dangerous and turbulent time, the artist’s mother insisted he learn to write and draw in order to keep him inside as much as possible. Far from the original intention of hiding him from the world, this practice led Zhang Xiaogang to become indisputably one of the most recognizable and significant Contemporary Chinese artist today. The artist is represented by Pace Galleries with one of his paintings setting a record for the highest price ever paid at auction for a Contemporary Chinese painting. The artist lives and works in China.

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